"No hindsight", "Russian roulette", "complicated relationship with the State" ... In Martinique, part of the population continues to be reluctant to be vaccinated, despite a particularly dramatic fourth wave of Covid-19.

At 74, Edwige Dupuy, is "for the moment not vaccinated".

"I am not against the vaccine, but I find that we do not have enough perspective," explains this retiree living in the town of Diamant (south of the island), who still prefers "to wait a bit".

While the health situation is "incommensurate" with that of previous waves in metropolitan France, in the words of the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, present Thursday on the spot, Edwige considers the situation "anxiety-provoking", but "does not trust" anti-Covid vaccines.

" Russian roulette "

She is far from being the only one: when questioned in the street, many Martinicans say "wait for version 2 of the vaccine", and "do not want to play Russian roulette".

Faced with the extremely virulent nature of the fourth wave in Martinique, the authorities have observed in recent days a "thrill" in favor of vaccination.

But for now, only 18% of the Martinican population is fully vaccinated.

Jeannette Coton-Pelagie, 63, Edwige's sister, is vaccinated.

But it justifies in particular the refusal of the most reluctant by the affair of chlordecone, a pesticide long used in the banana plantations of the Antilles, and considered as an endocrine disruptor and probable carcinogen.

“President Emmanuel Macron told us that apparently chlordecone had not been harmful on West Indian soil [during his trip to the West Indies in September 2018], but when we see the number of patients with prostate disorders, we have the impression that the Republic is lying to us, ”she said.

“Now they say that the vaccine can help us fight against Covid, but how can you not be suspicious?

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Chlordecone, Sargassum ...

“The question of vaccination still arises. I really believe that in the Overseas Territories it will be something complicated ", also estimates the mayor of the commune of Diamant, Hugues Toussay, who is also not vaccinated, but" will perhaps evolve in (his ) reflection ". He evokes "History" and a "complicated relationship with the State": in addition to "months of struggle with the State concerning chlordecone", he also cites the battle against Sargassum algae which regularly invade the West Indian shores, objects debate between local authorities and the State on who should pay for the consequences of this pollution.

He adds "the fake news on social networks", the fact that the Martinican "is suspicious" and "does not go headlong into everything that is said to him", and the feeling that the West Indian populations have experienced a shift of the epidemic over time in relation to France.

"The population felt immune, protected", by its "insularity", he believes.

Local remedies

"What we are currently experiencing in the West Indies is what the metropolis experienced in the first wave", insists Jeannette Coton-Pélagie, regretting that some national media "stigmatize us" by asserting that the West Indians refuse to be vaccinated because they "drink rum", whether they practice voodoo or prefer to use "Rimèd razié", local medicinal plants. Many defend this traditional pharmacology, like this 69-year-old woman, wishing to remain anonymous, who opposes the vaccine and instead advocates "basil infusion" and "healthy eating".

Joyce Thelam, a young man of 33, also defends “these effective remedies”, believing that the vaccine “is useless”, in a rhetoric using certain conspiracy theories conveyed by social networks.

“Look at Jacob Desvarieux: he had received three doses of the vaccine and he died of Covid,” he explains, for example.

But the singer, who had a kidney transplant, had an extremely weak immune system due to the immunosuppressive treatment he was taking, making the vaccine less effective.

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  • Covid 19

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • 20 minutes video

  • Coronavirus

  • Society

  • Martinique